The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
BRANDON that payed his services to the Lady Latimer But people were not always so credulous they made a little too bold with that Lady's reputation and the mind of man commonly passes over things which are so easily discovered that it may pry into those that are studiously kept from its knowledg There were severals therefore that observing the obliging manner how the Princess treated BRANDON in publick and knowing besides somewhat of the secret visits which he never rendered to her in her appartment but in company of the KING believed that he made them alone The rumour of this began to spread by degrees and though being vexed thereat he made appear to the KING his Master the consequences thereof yet that voluptuous KING was too much wedded to his pleasures to renounce them and BRANDON himself began at length to taste such pleasures as he could not have found in any other course of life The Lady Latimer who was desperately in love with him essaying by all ways of compliance to merit his affection allowed him great liberty with the Princess Mary She let him see the lovely Princess oftner than once asleep in the secret of Night and fearing nothing of the KING who was then commonly taken up with her Daughter because all these things seemed only to be done in attending of him she left him many times alone in her Chamber or at most but accompanied by a Maid privy to her intrigues called Judith Kiffin which was thought worse than to have left them together upon their bare word However the matter be the pleasure of seeing Mary of England as he did made him at length speak but faintly of what the KING did in prejudice of her reputation and though he always dreaded the consequences of those frolicks yet by little and little he accustomed himself not to find fault with the occasions Matters being in this state and the QUEEN by degrees recovering her health and appearing more cheerful the Court full of Mistresses and Lovers found their entertainment in the various emergents that love every moment occasioned amongst them when Gray Bourchier and Sommerset impatient of losing more sighs resolved to trouble the felicity of BRANDON They had already for some days set spies to observe him or otherways lay in wait for him themselves upon notice given them that he went almost every night to the apartment of the Princess Their own eyes had seen him and they knew the by-ways he used to take though they had not discovered that he was with the KING or in the least suspected it so careful was that Prince to pass unknown They placed themselves therefore in Ambush at a back-door in the Palace by which BRANDON the fifth in company had just before entred and fearing no impediment in their design unless by the Rancounter of some Germans who had remained at London after the conclusion of the League whom they had already agreed among themselves to accuse of the disorders which themselves intended to commit though Gray was that night indisposed yet the other two being more fiery and unwilling to let slip this occasion they rallied together to the number of seven All things appeared to them at first in as fair a way as they desired No body molested them in the quarter where they had posted themselves and the Moon being over-clouded gave no more light but what was enough for them to distinguish themselves by the marks that they carried So that the KING returning from his visit hardly had he that kept the key opened the door when Bourchier presented a Pistol to the two Yeomen of the Guard that came out first Stand said he where is BRANDON Sommerset immediately in the same manner put the question to them But the two Guards so much the more daring that they had the KING for a witness of their Courage made them answer only with their Carabines and both of them firing at the same instant that Bourchier and Sommerset fired as there were but two reports heard so there were but two shot that did execution That of Sommerset passing under the hand of the Yeoman of the Guard that stood opposite to him was carried too high and Bourchiers only grazed upon the others Cassock But as one of the Carabines missed Sommerset who by good fortune kneeled on one knee so the other bruised the shoulder of Bourchier and both being loaded with several Bullets killed three of their men that stood behind them The KING in the mean time who feared nothing so much as to be discovered considering the boldness of the attempt and perceiving two of the contrary party who remained betake themselves to flight caused quickly the other door of the Palace by which he was to enter to be opened BRANDON having drawn but finding none to fight with came shortly after and the two Yeomen of Guard that knew the Kings intention as well as he having immediately disarmed Sommerset and Bourchier followed him This was the fortune of these Rivals who found all the difficulty imaginable to get home the one sorely wounded and the other soundly beaten and both in extreme despair The KING was no sooner where he desired to be but being furiously incensed against them he resolved and vowed their ruin yet Brandon interposing stopt this first ebullition of choler by representing to him that in punishing the guilty according to their merit he would discover the secret and to that prevalent reason adding considerations that concerned the Princess he at length perswaded him that they had received usage hard enough to make them capable of some favour Insomuch that the whole matter past for an unlucky skuffle that Bourchier and Sommerset had had with some drunken Germans At least the Earl of Essex was ordered to publish as much the day following and to make it the more credible strangers were forbidden to walk abroad in the night upon pain of death None but the Rivals of BRANDON whispered secretly what they knew but by the absolute Command which the KING had given to the Earl of Essex that he should impute the wound of his Son to those who were no ways concerned in it and by the fierce threats he made to that Earl for the suspicions that he endeavoured to insinuate against the Princess his Sister so high as that he replied in rage that knowing better than he what her carriage was it was only in respect of his age that he pardoned so insolent a Calumny In a word by the secret rumour that began to spread that the King himself was a Party they by little and little diving into his intrigue with Cecile Blunt found all their Fortunes good so that a private reason hindered him from taking publick revenge Gray went away with the Marquess of Dorset his Father who carried six thousand English to Fontarabie to assist the King of Spain in invading Guyenne according to an Article of the League Howard and Talbot though they were not no more than he at
of Cecile Blunt Daughter to the Lord Latimer occasioned there great alteration Her Mother seeming comfortless as women of her humour affect always to appear retired into the Countrey The Dutchess of Bedford falling deaf and oppressed with many other infirmities of old age took likewise the occasion to withdraw The Countess of Pembrock was put in her place until the Arrival of Princess Margaret of York Dutchess of Salisbury Daughter of the unfortunate Duke of Clarence and her self as unfortunate in the sequel as her Brother the Earl of Warwick The King sometime before for reasons of state had designed her for that charge and the Lady Dacres was ordered to supply the place of the Lady Latimer until she were recovered from her grief so that there remained of the ancient servants of the Princess hardly any but Judith Kiffen who being the most dexterous person in the world for that service and lying commonly at the foot of her bed she was become too useful to her to let her be removed and that revolution in the Family of the Princess Mary was a forerunner of the disorder which shortly appeared in the mind of the King What care soever he had had to conceal his love for his late Mistris he had not the power to dissemble his affliction for her death He began to condemn the intrigues of his Court with which he had always used to make himself merry He went so far as to defeat the measures of several Lovers by giving them new employments under pretext of the War of France and though Brandon met not with so great crosses yet he was one of the first that perceived the King to be out of humour when being no more the Confident of his affliction as he had been of his pleasures he saw a new favourite admitted into his place one Thomas Woolsey Bishop of Lincoln to whom Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester had left vast riches at his death This man of low Birth but sublime Parts as sometimes bad men are knew very well that HENRY the Eight notwithstanding the great Qualities which rendered him formidable to his neighbours was a restless Prince and that being unable after the hurry of business to remain idle and unactive he stood in need of some amusing toy that might refresh his mind by seizing his heart In a word he understood that repose being uneasie to him without pleasures and wantonness he must needs be provided of women and that possibly was the reason that it was said that to comfort him for the death of the Mistris whom he had just before lost he made no scruple to advise him to bestow his affection with all expedition on some other It was besides alledged that he himself being smitten with the lovely eyes of the Princess Mary and not so foolish as to expect any enjoyment of her had wrought him to fix his eyes upon her But I think that that is to be looked upon as a Calumny of those who reproached him with all kinds of crimes because he had pursued them with all sorts of evils Ambitious men such as Woolsey are either not very sensible of love or would not be so tame as to give to another what they love themselves However it be whether it was an effect of the counsel of that bad Minister or that the Beauty of Mary which daily encreased had awakened some desire in the mind of HENRY the Eight it is certain that that Prince after the death of Cecile Blunt did speak of love to the Princess his Sister She understood him not at first or to say better she would not understand him but the account that she gave of it to Brandon had almost killed him with grief And although he never dreamt of any such thing yet the indifferency wherewith the King for some time had used him gave sufficient evidence of the change of his fortune and as till then he had doubted what might be the cause of that disgrace imputing it sometime to some fault of his own and sometime to the natural inconstancy of the King so he believed that he had then found it out So that to remove himself from trouble and following no other counsel but that of his jealousie or fear he beg'd leave of the King to go to Calais with the first Troops that were then drawing out for the War of France Though the King had not altogether the Sentiments which Brandon suspected yet he well understood his thoughts and without any farther discovery he thought it enough to answer that it behoved him to moderate that impatience seeing he intended to have him by him the first time that he drew his sword But notwithstanding of this obliging answer Brandon's disturbance had no end insomuch that some days after finding occasion to speak again to the King he renewed to him the same suit adding that if he could a little train himself in the matters of War before he undertook it he would deserve better to follow His Majesty Upon this the King by a return of affection for a man whom he had so much loved being willing wholly to undeceive him told him smiling That he well perceived what he had in his thoughts but that sure he was not more dangerous than another and that he should not take the allarm so hot for a little gallantry which he used with his Sister only to divert him from thinking on poor Cecile Nothing certainly in that juncture of affairs could have been better said and it answered all objections Nevertheless diffidence which is natural to all true Lovers made Brandon think these words the more to be suspected the less that they appeared so He imagined that his dangerous Rival under an affected repugnancy cloaked a real desire to see him at a distance which he discoursed of with the Princess in so prepossessed a manner that she was constrained in reason to approve of what his weakness proposed But before he asked the third time permission from the King to depart and took his leave of her he resolved in an excessive fit of love to acquaint her with what he had learned concerning his Birth The Princess Mary was no less surprised at the relation which from his Uncle he had made to her of that matter than he himself was at first and though the whole story of the marriage of the Earl of Warwick with Ann Hemlock founded on the prediction of Merlin or the report of Old Hastings lately dead might appear suspicious in the mouth of a Lover yet she entertained not the least thought of that nature On the contrary notwithstanding the favourable opinion that she had of the truth of all her surprise appeared visibly in her eyes as he was speaking and so soon as he had made an end being desirous to have all things better cleared she told him with a tenderness which the novelty of the matter and the emotion of her mind rendered very extraordinary that she loved him no better for
being a Prince of York but that she loved her self somewhat more on that account and that being well-pleased that she had cause to reverence in him what till then she had but esteemed she rejoyced that she had no reason to fear those stirrings of pride in her heart which might be sometimes troublesom to a person of her Quality in regard of the condition she took him to be of That all that notwithstanding was but a dangerous Idea with which they ought never to entertain themselves That he was dear enough to her as the Son of Brandon and that he would but create her disquiet as a Prince of the Blood of York That so he would not do well to be jealous of the greatness of his Birth that he ought to renounce that for her sake and that bounding all his ambition with the favour of being beloved so tenderly as she loved him he should never attempt to make himself known for the man he was Brandon being at the same time amazed and charmed to hear her speak in so obliging terms could make her no other answer but that she was too gracious and that when he resolved to disclose to her his secret it was not so much to engage her to more goodness towards him as to put her in a condition of punishing him if it ever happened that he should prove unworthy of her favours But the fair Princess stopping him there replied softly That he had no reason to suspect that she should one day punish him unless he thought that he might one day offend her That nevertheless he needed not be afraid though he should even become her Enemy and that she was not the innocent maid of whom Merlin spake afterward without giving him time to answer and considering with more reason than she had at first thought on the design he had projected of removing from Court for a time she represented to him That he ought to have special care not to betray himself by looking on the Dutchess of Salisbury and her Daughter who were expected within a few days at Court as his Aunt and Cousin She added that his true Birth rendered a little suspected to her the choice that the King had made of that Princess for her Conduct having so many times testified that he loved her not She told him that he ought on that occasion distrust him and that though the kindnesses wherewith he had thought fit to entertain her in some Rancounters were certainly nothing else but some exercises and frolicks of wit seeing he did not persist in them yet it was possible there might be in it some hidden mystery which time might discover In fine continued she my Knight and Brother these were the names that she gave him in her Child-hood and commonly still when they were by themselves let us distrust all the world distrust me if you please and above all things have a care to continue still to be Brandon leaving to me the care of the Prince of York and you shall find that whether you be necessitated to depart or have the liberty to abide at Court it shall be more pleasant for you to be reputed what you are in my heart than to appear so in the eyes of the world Thus ended their conversation which as it was the most important interview that they could enjoy so was it also the longest that ever they had had But the Earl of Kildare who had three times presented himself in the Anti-Chamber of the Princess and had been by her Maids still dismissed on frivolous reasons seeing Brandon come forth conceived so great indignation thereat that he followed him with a purpose to quarrel and left him not till he saw him enter into the Kings Apartment This Earl being Son to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and buoyed up besides by the protection of Woolsey and some concerns that he had with the Lady Dacres thought that he might have better success than the rest in the service of the Princess Mary He had not as yet seen any impediment to his design but Brandon and promising himself already great advantages from the apparent disgrace whereof some began to pity his danger he stood not upon examination of what he designed against him He received moreover a new ground of jealousie upon the Arrival of Margaret of York Dutchess of Salisbury which put him out of all patience for being with him at Richmont at the reception which the Princess conducted by the Queen was there to give to that illustrious Widow the first ceremonies being past he unluckily observed a little but very obliging sign that she had made to his Enemy to draw near her chair He afterwards perceived by her eyes and actions that she spake to him with much goodness and in effect the Princess Mary being taken with some features that the Ladies of Salisbury had in common with Brandon she could not forbear telling him at the very instant the trouble that that sight occasioned her so that it was sufficiently observed that she spake to him with somewhat of tenderness and Brandon on the other hand whether for joy to find her so well perswaded of the truth of what he had told her concerning his Birth or to divert her from the officious fears that she had for his sake answering in a composed and contented manner made it almost past all doubt Insomuch that the Earl of Kildare mad of jealousie and being no longer master of himself went forth with a resolution to take his satisfaction in what place soever he could meet him But the King being come likewise to that visit before his going to Greenwich to see a great match of hunting Brandon who was to wait upon him gave not his Enemy the occasion so soon as he expected it And now his thoughts being wholly taken up about his departure and that which the Princess her self had immediately before told him of the resemblance that he had to the Ladies of Salisbury his desire was only bent to withdraw himself and he thought to find an opportunity favourable enough of speaking to the King as he waited upon him down to the Park where he was to take horse but he was deceived in that and it happened to be a fatal nick of time for the King who was out of humour because the Spaniards on the Pyrenean side did not perform on their part what they had promised for a rupture with France answered him pretty briskly that he thought he had been cured of that impatience and as he was about to insist Ha! said he you importune me let me alone I pray thee you will but trouble my sport at Greenwich and so turning his back upon him he went away with those that used to wait on him on such occasions So that the melancholick Brandon thinking that himself only was ordered to stay behind sought out some corner in the Park wherein to evaporate the thoughts which at that time tormented him and had sometime
walked about in that design with a wounded heart for the slight that the King had given him when the Earl of Keldare having had confused notice of what passed came towards him Though he saw him at a pretty distance yet he did not prepare to engage him but stopped to consider the fierce and threatning looks wherewith he advanced towards him Whereupon the Irish man drawing Brandon who was obliged to do the same encountered him And by a wound first in the shoulder made him see his own blood with a second pass he run him through the right arm and the third going quite through his body made him fall against the pales Never was there any quarrel sooner made and more quickly decided The noise of this Duel having called together those who in the delightful spring came to enjoy in that Park the first verdure of the fields and the servants of the wounded Earl being come in Brandon was instantly apprehended and the matter being afterward reported to Woolsey by the authority which that new Minister had already acquired he was made prisoner in a Tower of Richmont-house until that the Lord Mayor of London following the King on his way to Greenwich should receive his Orders concerning that affair The Princess Mary had no information of all this but from the Dutchess of Salisbury who in that confusion and in respect of the Prisoner who was to be carefully guarded was advised not to delay till next day the taking possession of her apartment with the Princess in whom it is not easie to be represented what Impression this news made The reflexions that she had made on the pretended resemblance betwixt Brandon and the two Ladies of Salisbury of the house of York and the secret apprehensions that she thereupon conceived which made her leave the Queen in her Walk pretending her self indisposed held her still in great perplexity She went to bed that she might not be obliged to see any body and there her mind being prepossessed with what she knew and imagining that it would suddenly come to the knowledg of others her thoughts presented to her nothing but dismal objects Insomuch that the disaster of Brandon surprising her in this condition all that she had before but confusedly thought on seemed to her manifest and clear With a great cry she let fall her head on the pillow and to compleat her sorrow she received a note from the King who had given orders to the Mayor of London to remove the Prisoner to the Tower acquainting her directly That he not doubting but that the punishment which Brandon deserved for killing the Earl of Kildare would put her in some disorder he prayed her to suspend the good opinion which she might have for that ungrateful person until that he should inform her of some strange things which he had learned Such general and ambiguous terms susceptible of any meaning that an affrightned mind could give them put the Princess Mary to the extremity of despair and that first night when Brandon went to the Tower of London was a sad and terrible night to her Judith Kiffen who thought it fit to watch with her alone that night and who being ignorant of the mysterious secret that caused her grief imputed to the love alone to which she was privy all the incoherent expressions that seemed to escape from her without judgment had more to do with her than she dreamt of The vexation of her mind was followed by an oppression of body She fell into a Fever but so dangerous as put every one in fear of her life and the Queen and Dutchess of Salisbury who could not be always denied access into her Chamber being next day the most solicitous about her to procure her ease her fortune was certainly good that at that time the violence of her distemper having deprived her of the use of speech put her out of condition of betraying her self The King in the mean-while whose thoughts were far different from hers and being ignorant of the secret causes of her fear proposing to himself in this conjuncture only his revenge both for the indifferency wherewith she entertained his Gallantry and the idle fear that her Lover thereupon conceived followed his game at Greenwich and continued it even longer than at first he intended that such as came from London to beg of him that he would change the orders given to the Lord Mayor against the Prisoner might not find him and that so he might have ground to say that he was ignorant of what had passed Insomuch that several messengers sent either by the Queen or the Dutchess of Salisbury to give him advice of the sickness of the Princess Mary sought him in the Fields and Woods in vain They were everywhere directed to find him in places where he was not but Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset who of his own head had taken horse was more fortunate in his search The love that he had for the Princess Mary made him sufficiently understand what the best-informed could know of her distemper though it was given out that it had seized her before the business of Brandon happened and how jealous sover he was of the pretious testimony of affection which at that time she gave to his happy Rival yet his jealousie served only to prompt him with greater earnestness to attempt her relief Insomuch that he surmounted all the difficulties that had hindered the rest from finding the King and having passionately given him an account of the dangerous condition that the Princess was in he moved him instantly to return to Greenwich from whence next morning by the break of day he departed for London The insolence of Woolsey was at first sufficiently repressed by the dislike which the King testified of his procedure Having waved the discourses that they would have made to him concerning the wounds of the Earl of Kildare and having nothing in his mind but the sickness of his Sister and knowing better than Gray that her cure consisted in the safety of Brandon he asked presently how he was used and gave order to the Lord Terell to send him such of his servants as he might stand in need of So that fame which commonly is swifter than the Marches of Kings having carried this good news into the apartment of the Princess was without doubt the most acceptable harbinger that she could have of his Arrival But fear having wrought great disorders in her mind and after a new paroxysm of her Fever which did but begin to abate her mind being weakened as well as her body she could not show her self to him as she desired to appear The trembling tone of her voice proceeding rather from the tenderness of her heart than the force of her distemper gave but too sensible a proof of the hard tryal she had been put to and there was nothing more easie than for him to perceive that the life of Brandon was her sole care though she had not
asked him if it was true that he intended to cause him to be put to death So that this Prince who on such occasions was very sensible answering only with kisses and tears and her Caresses expressing her desire far more intelligibly than words gave him hardly liberty to speak that he might oppose himself to the impatience that she was in He left her that he might with his counsel contrive a way to relieve Brandon from the Tower with pretext of justice But for all the formality which he affected to observe in his affairs he had no great occasion to be so scrupulous in this matter The greatest part of the Court who perceived his design spake openly for Brandon against the Earl of Kildare And after a formal shew of examining the tumultuary depositions that they might give some favourable colour to their proceedings the Lords Poyning and Terell were immediately sent to the Prisoner He came with them without a guard and as he cast himself on his knees before the King there appearing in his cloaths some mark of the insolent usage that he had met with you see said the King to him how dangerous it is for you to remove from me and that I had reason not to consent to your departure seeing that in a moment that you have left me there is a world of enemies broken loose against you Whereupon Brandon offering to speak of the aggression of the Earl of Kildare the King stopped him at the first word and commanded him to rise promising to do justice in time and place to him that deserved it Then drawing him a little aside he told him that the Princess's health must be his chief endeavour and that for his better succeeding in that office he thought it not fit he should see her in the disorder that he was in No body heard this discourse nor somewhat else that passed betwixt them It was only seen that the King forced himself to appear grave in his discourse and whilst he himself went to change his cloaths as well as Brandon whom he had again ordered to do so all Brandons friends whom his ill fortune had not as yet much dispersed rallied together and brought him from his Lodgings where some met him and others accompanied him as in triumph to the Palace He payed his second visit to the Queen who had interceded for him and whilst he was with her Majesty the King that he might countenance his visit to his Sister came back to her apartment But he suffered none of his train to come farther in than the first Gallery under pretext that much company was incommodious to sick persons and so soon as he had notice that Brandon was coming leaving none with her but Judith Kiffen he himself withdrew to the Dutchess of Salisbury's apartment that in so delicate and much-desired an interview she might not be under any constraint It would be a great undertaking to endeavour to give a precise and full account of all that was done and said at that time betwixt Brandon and the English Princess besides at first their hearts and eyes made all the discourse the Princess wanting strength to speak otherways and Brandon having so much to say that he knew not well how to express any thing At length the Princess spake first who seeing him more afflicted at her distemper than could be imagined strained her self to tell him that it was nothing and that seeing he was free from the danger wherein she believed him to be she should shortly be cured of the sickness wherein he saw her She declared to him moreover as well as she could that the hurt or death of the Earl of Kildare was not that which had dismayed her but that she feared he had been discovered He answered but very little to that though no body could hear what they said Nor could the Kings note which she gave him to read for the confirmation of her belief and fear engage him to enter on that discourse He knew that the safest way was never to speak more of it and having heard nothing to that purpose in his Prison and the manner how the King received him having no relation at all to that he was well enough acquainted with his character and stile to guess at the truth of the matter So that he thought it sufficient by his looks to free her from the apprehension that she had conceived and discoursing to her only concerning her health with mutual expressions of tender affection they began to renew the testimonies of their real loves when the King fearing that too long a conversation might be hurtful to a sick person returned and separated them with as much kindness as he had brought them together Brandon followed him that he might render him thanks for his favours and inform himself what was to be the issue of the Rancounter he had had with the Earl of Kildare whose wounds were not mortal But their discourse on that subject was not long The King who naturally concerned himself in the amours of every one wishing him only joy for the good opinion that a fair Princess was pleased to have of him took thereby occasion to rally with him because he had taken him for his Rival upon some words of Gallantry which escaped from him as he said whil'st he intended only to bewail the death of Cecile Then he upbraided him with the small trust he gave to his word and friendship that carried him so far as to resolve to leave him and confessing at length frankly that he had not caused him to be sent to the Tower but to revenge himself of that private affront and at the same time to discover what love could do in the heart of a young Princess it might seem that he had no more to say for his satisfaction But yet he stopped not there for finding in himself some secret joy which added somewhat to his natural debonairity and that it concerned the health of his Sister that Brandon should re-assume his former jollities that with more success he might employ himself in her Service he thought it not fit to dismiss him before he had dissipated the smallest mists which great affairs how well soever concluded leave commonly behind them No forrain nor remote matters disturbed him at that time and he had just then received good news from the Emperour who to begin the War against France promised to act on the Frontiers of Picardy which the wary King of Spain deferred to do on the side of Guyenne So that finding his mind in great liberty he gave Brandon a review of the life they had led together and laying before him almost all the Testimonies of Friendship that he had shewed him he forgot not amongst the rest to take special notice of the merit of that obliging manner whereby he had countenanced his love With that desiring a suitable return of Justice he cryed that it was his part to render it him adding that he knew not
at the head of four thousand horse eight hundred foot and six pieces of Cannon passes the River Lis near to Derlet and lyes in wait for the Enemies at the passage of Hutin They retreated with great assurance marching in confusion as he had foreseen for being pursued by none after the false allarm which was purposely given them was over and missing none of their number but the young Count D'anton Son to the Seignior of Bouchage and some others that could not get out of Therowenne they dreamt not of any greater mischief when Brandon appearing of a sudden so sharply charged them that having no leisure to mount their great Horses again nor to put on their head-pieces they began to be in disorder The brave la Palisse notwithstanding of the stout resistance he made was already taken and the undaunted Chevalier Bayard having almost singlely defended the bridg of Hutin became companion in the bad fortune of Clairmont D'anjow and of Bussy D'amboise to whose assistance he came There remained none but the Duke of Longueville to head the subdued who being mounted on a stout charging-horse compleatly armed it seemed no easie matter for one man hand to hand to get the better of him and besides a considerable body of the French Army advanceing in order of Battel those that had been put to flight began to rally So that Brandon perceiving that the total rout of the Enemies depended on the overthrow of this Warriour and by the riches of his arms taking him for a French Prince he left la Palisse in the hands of some Gentlemen who kept him not long and with sword in hand set upon him whose resistance hindered his Victory The Duke of Longueville received him valiantly but at length after the interchanging of many blows Brandon with the danger of a wound which he received in the thigh dismounted the Duke who disjoynted his shoulder by the fall The French upon this turned back upon those that were coming to their aid and put their own men in as great disorder as the Enemy would have done and seeing in this Battel their horses heels had done them better service than the points of their swords it was called the Battel of Spurs But it had been far better for Brandon that the Duke of Longueville had escaped with the rest for the injury that he did him afterward was so great that all the Glory he obtained in overcoming him and all the praise that he gained thereby was not enough to make amends for it Time sensibly discovering to him that fortune by great evils can be repayed of her greatest favours After this there happened no more considerable action on either side Brandon's wound kept him a fortnight a-bed and the King of France though he had lost but very few men being unwilling to expose his Kingdom to the danger of a Battel thought it best to give Therowenne to the fortune of his Enemies Teligny after two months siege rendered it on composition Victuals and Ammunition failing him before his Courage and the King of England and the Emperour not agreeing betwixt themselves about the propriety of the place the one claiming it by right of Inheritance and the other by Conquest it was presently demolished In the mean time Lowis the Twelfth that he might put a stop to his bad success by employing a General in whose safety all his Subjects might be concerned caused the young Duke of Valois to advance to Blangy But neither the merit of that Prince nor the great Forces that daily joyned him hindered the progress of the King of England for whilst the Duke Longueville and the other Prisoners were on their way to London he lay down before the City of Tournay which having no hope of relief as lying in the midst of the Low-Countreys made no long resistance And having now reduced that place under his Obedience and beginning to have some jarring with the Emperour who in many things was chargeable to him and in others unfaithful he returned back into England Never was Prince better satisfied for besides his own Conquests of Therowenne and Tournay the Victory which the Earl of Surrey's Lieutenant had just then obtained over the Scots raised him to the highest pitch of fortune that he could almost pretend to and though his Fleet had received some ruffle in the Bay of Brest yet the death of the King of Scotland killed in the Battel of Floudon which he fought only for the interest of France though he was his Brother-in-law revenged him fully of that and of the damage which Pregent and Primanguet had done him on his Wastes Insomuch that he entred London in triumph where to reward those who had fought so valiantly for his Glory he made Brandon Duke of Suffolk gave the Title of Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Surrey and to his Son the Admiral that of Surrey and Talbot Gray and Sommerset who had behaved themselves stoutly on all occasions were created the one Earl of Shrewsbury in the place of his Father who desired it the other Marquess of Dorset his Father being lately dead and the last Earl of Worcester But these are matters wide of my Subject and I should not remark them by the by but for avoiding confusion in the names of those who may have some share in the sequel of this History My business should be to relate the joy that the English Princess conceived upon the return of Brandon to which the title of Duke of Suffolk as from henceforth he must be named added but little for a real virtue once known needs no other Ornaments And the affectionate rebukes she gave him for having so often exposed himself to dangers would without doubt require a more exact description than I make were it not that the tenderness of these Lovers is sufficiently known and that their pains rather than pleasures are to be related since that amidst trouble and difficulties the greatness and power of Love appears more conspicuous After so fair beginnings they wanted not crosses and all that had befallen them before the War from the competition of Gray Bourchier and Sommerset from the Kings indifferency after the death of Cecile Blunt or from the aggression of the Earl of Kildare followed by an Imprisonment which the secret Quality of a Prince of York rendered the more dangerous All this I say bears no proportion with what they endured afterward Upon the return from the War of France all people imagining that Brandon who had acquired so much Glory there should espouse the Princess Mary when they saw him only made Duke of Suffolk and nothing else talked of they believed that his fortune was at a stand and that in that respect there had been more policy than friendship in the Conduct of the King There is but little certainty in the opinions of men all is but whimsey There was no more discourse therefore of his Intelligence with Mary of England nor of the services he rendered
to speak as long as she pleased and even affected to put her in some kind of impatience for an answer and when he thought that she had expected it long enough he gently replyed That not having foreseen the reproach she made to him it was not in his power to justifie himself on the sudden and that seeing his Crime was discovered she had no more to do but to punish him And then beholding her with so much the more calmness that she had spoken in passion but Madam continued he let mo be delivered into the hands of the executioner and let me dye you shall be Queen of France and it shall be to me a delightful comfort when I mount the scaffold to know that I am no more an hinderance to you to mount the Throne About a year ago you knew not what reason might make you become mine enemy now you have found it out I am desirous you should be a Queen Ah! Madam cryed he I cannot be guilty of a lovelier Crime With these words he would have departed but the Princess stopped him and being more out of countenance and more afflicted for the unjust reproach that she had cast upon him than for that she had drawn from him bursting forth in Tears at the door of the Closet she gave but too evident signs of her trouble and repentance Suffolk on the other hand being deeply smitten with that new expression of grief which compleated his own had no thoughts of insulting over it He stood with his eyes fixed on the floor directing thither his sighs as well as looks and very far from telling her that she should let him go to the death to which she had condemned him which another perhaps might have done in a profound silence he considered how he might mollifie the deplorable condition which he saw her in though he did not endeavour it for fear of reducing her to another as bad He well perceived that his love disguised it self under all kinds of shapes and that when it should glance forth under the colour of respect and pity that would but revive in her the flames which he desired to smother by making it appear But as he clearly saw into the heart of the Princess so she likewise penetrated into his So that retracting of a sudden the unjust reproach which vexation had made her charge him with Why do ye force me said she to speak what I do not think And why must I be constrained seeing I cannot bend you by a real tenderness which you know so well to be rooted in my heart to attempt to terrifie you by an imaginary hatred which I affect as well as I can What is become of us Suffolk continued she that your virtue makes me despair and my affection oppresses you At these words animated by throbs sighs and tears which love being reduced to the utmost extremity forced from the loveliest mouth and fairest eyes in the world it was not in the power of poor Suffolk any longer to resist his strength failed him and he fell down upon a Couch The Princess affrighted to see him look pale and faint began to be in the same fears for him that he was daily in for her And as he had omitted nothing that might perswade and overcome her so then it fell to her turn to spare no means that could satisfie and bring him again to himself She told him that she yielded promised to do whatsoever he would have her and what could she indeed deny him in that sad condition And what was she not obliged to do to relieve him However their conversation could last no longer the Duke of Suffolk must withdraw and having with much ado crawled out of the apartment of the Princess the Marquess of Dorset who met him was obliged to Conduct him home The disorder nevertheless that appeared in his countenance was neither so considerable nor dangerous as that which no body saw But the one suspended the other The oppression of the mind hindered the distemper of body and though he had had a Fever all night long yet the Earl of Shrewsbury who went next morning in the Kings name to visit him found him up He went himself likewise to Court the better to cloak all appearances and having discoursed on several things with the King Suffolk finding his virtue supported by secret advantages which his master promised himself from the marriage of his Sister with the King of France they agreed between themselves on the means to bring her to comply But it was now no more necessary to come to extremities She began of her self to resolve on it and the death or flight of the Duke of Suffolk which she found to be otherways unavoidable won by little and little from her fears a condescension to the negotiation of the Duke of Longueville to which her Love could never have consented So that that worthy Lover but the most unfortunate of all Lovers seeing he was too well beloved being come to her apartment after that the King and he had agreed what could not be in any other way concluded found her still in the same disquiet for his health that he had left her in the day before But she spake no more to him of any thing which she knew might put him in trouble She fell rather into a kind of Lethargy and whilst she used violence with her self to conceal it for fear of stirring up his compassion he fell softly to entertain her with those wild and chimerical hopes which the worst of fortunes cannot take from the unfortunate when they have a mind to imagine them She made a shew of being flattered therewith as well as he She began to spare him as he spared her and whilst with a hard curb she checked her more tender passions giving the reins to the most violent that she was capable of the Duke of Longueville became the object of them She did nothing but detest the day of his Captivity and with so much the more violence that he revenged himself so cruelly on him that had taken him In a word she could not look on him but as a mortal enemy whose sight she protested she could never endure and it may be said of that French Prince that desiring by indirect ways to gain all he lost all and that as there was never any Lover whose notions were more foolish so likewise was there never any who took falser measures However his negotiation succeeded according to the orders which he had received and the General of Normandy extraordinary Ambassadour of France came to London to conclude the marriage and peace in the treaty of which the young King of Scotland was comprehended with excommunication against the breakers because it was authorised by the Pope After this the King of England and Duke of Suffolk made it all their care to recover the cheerful humour of the Princess which seemed to be banished from her soul for the rest of her days The Marquess
of his But that was a day that produced strange adventures for the fury of the Earl of Kildare ceased of a sudden and that fiery man was so affected with Suffolks action that throwing his sword into the same place of the Wood as he had done he came running towards him with open arms crying with tears That he would never be any more his enemy After which there was no kind of friendship which they showed not to one another and this days adventure having interrupted the design which Suffolk had to wander over the world he yielded to go to Calais with the Earl of Kildare saying sometimes within himself by a tenderness of heart which makes true Lovers know the force of their love that he went only to London to endeavour the re-establishment of his defender And in effect the procedure of that generous enemy was the first thing he told the King his Master and that Prince who loved rare and singular adventures the more admired that action of the Irish Earl that he thought him not capable of such generosity So that he gave him a very favourable reception and restoring him again into favour by that means united these two Rivals into so strict a bond of friendship that nothing could afterward dissolve it In the mean while as the return of the Duke of Suffolk was in agitation and that upon the complaints which the Queen made by her Letters the King of England intended to stand on his points with the Court of France hardly had he projected the measures he was to take in that conjuncture when the Marquess of Dorset wrote an account of the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth It would be hard to give an exact relation of what the Duke of Suffolk conceived upon this great news It wrought a new change in him not to be expressed only after he had done all that could be done for Mary of England after that he had sacrificed her to her self by an excess of Virtue by sacrificing himself for her in an excess of Love nothing else can be said but that the reward which so high and extraordinary an action deserved began to shine in his eyes There was nothing able to moderate his joy but a false report that was spread abroad of the Queens being with Child For besides that this would have left him no hopes it being unlikely that the Mother of a Dolphin of France could leave her Sons Kingdom or enter into a second marriage with a person such as he was taken to be he dreaded likewise that the Duke of Valois whom she would thereby disappoint of a Crown might not revolt against her He likewise feared the Calumnies which the Favourites of that Prince would not fail to publish after that they had already slandered her and that fatal conception at length seemed to rob him of all that he thought was left him by the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth But it happened to be a mistake And the Queen having her self declared the contrary that the Proclamation of the Duke of Valois might not be held in suspense it was quickly perceived that she was the first who acknowledg'd him King of France by the name of FRANCIS the First and the Marquess de Sanferre who in the name of that Prince arrived shortly at London to renew the Treaty of Peace which the King his Father-in-law had concluded the year before put an end to the troubles of the Duke of Suffolk So that his heart being filled with joy HENRY the Eighth whose care it was also to render him happy would no longer delay his bliss He condescended to all that was proposed to him for the continuation of the Treaty and because with the interests of the two Crowns it behoved him likewise to regulate the concerns of the Queen his Sister in Quality of Dowager he took that pretext to send Suffolk into France with the title of Ambassadour Plenipotentiary which he discharged with so great splendour that Prince Henry Count of Nassaw who came to Paris at the same time in name of the Arch-Duke about the affairs of the Low-Countries was somewhat troubled to see a subject of England so highly out-do him But as there was nothing in France that could equal the Magnificence of the English and all the Court of FRANCIS the First were envious at it as well as the Flemings so there was nothing in the same Kingdom at that time comparable to the Beauty of the Queen The air wherewith she received the Duke of Suffolk at the Palace des Tournelles made the wits at Court say That she needed not too much virtue to comfort her for the death of a husband and it must be acknowledged that under her mourning Veil and Peak which by the light of a vast number of Torches set more advantageously off the delicate whiteness of her skin nothing was to be seen in her that day which might occasion melancholy or grief That raillery was carried as far as possibly it could be whilst the necessity of the affairs which they had to regulate with the King of France and his Ministers obliged them often to speak together and to be by themselves But whatever hath been said of them and whatsoever reports have been raised of their mutual complaisances or the joy that they had to meet again yet it is still true that they never gave any ground for Calumny and Reproach If they were so near to make a slip as men imagined yet they were cautious and in dangerous occasions when they might have done otherways they virtuously resisted temptation The new King of France was not of that temper for that Prince naturally very free with women would have made no Ceremony to have perswaded the Queen had she been in the least inclined to hear him He had many times much ado to leave her when the affairs of his Kingdom required it and for all the Grandure and Magnanimity which hath appeared in the course of his life yet being at that time too weak for his passion he appeared sometimes so peevish and out of humour that the same detracting tongues which have endeavoured to sully the reputation of Mary of England have given it out that his amorous fever made him so light-headed as to detest his marriage with the Daughter of LOWIS the Twelfth and to protest more than once that he had rather have enjoyed his Widow than his Kingdom Whether it was an effect of the Queens sweet disposition or that she was pleased to revenge her self for the troubles that he caused her before he was King she appeared not altogether inexorable Yet she was still the same at the heart and never what he took her to be So that one day when her beauty so surprised him that he forgot some of his measures thinking to take her on the right side he told her That since he himself could not expect to be happy it behoved him at least to endeavour to make her so that therefore he